Mesothelioma proposals face

Proposals for the reform of mesothelioma claims have been attacked for removing claimant choice, lowering compensation and undermining a claims system that is already working.Last week, the Ministry of Justice launched a consultation that seeks to reform the way mesothelioma claims are processed.

The paper suggested the introduction of a dedicated pre?action protocol, which would establish quicker timescales for claims, the development of a fixed recoverable costs regime – which the MoJ said, would “encourage proportionality in the amount of legal work undertaken and provide greater certainty about the legal costs incurred on behalf of claimants” – and the introduction of an electronic ‘gateway’ for a faster exchange of information.

Briony Krikorian, policy advisor and liability regulation general insurance directorate at the Association of British Insurers, welcomed the proposals: “The focus of these proposals is very much on helping the majority of claims to settle pre-litigation.

“These pre-action protocols request all the information that would be needed by a defendant to settle a claim from the claimant and put timescales both around the information the claimant provides and how quickly the defendant has to respond to those, so it is about making the exchange of information much more systematic and third party merchant account.”

“At the moment claimants have a choice,” he said. “Some clients prefer their cases to be settled in life, while others prefer to receive an interim payment and for the case to be resolved after they die. Mesothelioma claims settled in life tend to be worth 10% to 20% less than claims concluded after death so these proposals reduce compensation and reduce the claimant’s choices.

“Second, it removes defendant lawyers from the process so insurers spend less on their own legal services. Third, it limits the amount claimants can spend on their own legal representation as this is a process designed by and to be run for the benefit of the insurers, providing cheap justice, which the victims can ill afford.”

According to Morgan the mesothelioma fast-track system introduced by Master Whitaker in the High Court, and more widely adopted in April 2008 – which requires the submission of evidence in order to establish the need for an interim payment, while giving priority to cases involving severely limited life expectancy – is already working.

He said: “[The mesothelioma fast-track claims system] has created a level of understanding and cooperation between claimants and defendant lawyers to resolve issues quickly. This process is an example of how litigation should be done, what these proposals do is rip it up completely, they undermine it.”

He added: “Insurers will have to gear up to deal with mesothelioma claims more quickly. At the moment power of a claimant to enforce its response is only through litigation whereas now they can point to the protocol and say insurers need to comply with it.”

The Association of Personal Injury Lawyers added the MoJ proposals would speed up the resolution of third party payment gateway. Matthew Stockwell, president of Apil, said: “We hope this exercise will result in a fairer system, which will benefit people who are dying from a truly awful disease they contracted just because they turned up for work, often many decades ago.”

While John Latter, director of technical centre for UK claims at Zurich, argued the proposals are set to have a positive impact on all the parties involved. “I don’t see any negatives for anyone: insurers will pay the claims in a quicker and transparent way. If passed [as they are] the proposals would bring certainty to the process, take out excessive costs and make sure those that need compensation get it.”

Philippa Craven, partner at Kennedys, added the introduction of the Secure Mesothelioma Claims Gateway would bring these types of claims in line with the recent Jackson reforms for employers’ liability and public liability claims.“Jackson didn’t look to exclude mesothelioma from his reforms. He always thought the conditional fee agreements fixed fees should apply to those claims so it was just decided mesothelioma claims would be looked at as a separate issue,” she said.

However, the MoJ was keen to clarify the fact the proposed gateway is not similar to the road traffic accident portal as initially thought.A spokeswoman for the MoJ said: “It is intended to be an electronic means of exchanging information quickly between interested parties in mesothelioma claims. Its objective is to help speed up the claims process.”

The Dixie Group Reports

Commenting on the results, Daniel K. Frierson, chairman and chief executive officer, said, "The second quarter was one of strong performance both residentially and commercially. Dixie had a year-over-year sales improvement of 26% with sales growth in all areas of the business. Our sales growth in the residential business was 27% as compared to the same period a year ago. We believe the residential market grew during the quarter in the high single digits with the market strengthening as the quarter progressed. It appears that the residential carpet market is now being positively impacted by the increase in the housing sector that began in 2012. Sales for our commercial products increased 21% versus the second quarter of 2012. This increase was in comparison to the commercial market being up only slightly in our estimation.

"Our continued growth in excess of 20% in 2013 is a result of the investments we have made over the last several years in new products and sales coverage. The residential growth was a combination of strong results in our mass merchant area, continued growth of our Stainmaster(R) TruSoft(R) and SolarMax(R) products, strength in our wool business and momentum gained from the integration of the Gulistan products purchased late last year. The shift to softer products, as demonstrated by the growth of our Stainmaster(R) TruSoft(R) products, continued throughout the quarter. In addition, the success of our high performance Stainmaster(R) SolarMax(R) products has led us to expand manufacturing capacity to fulfill rising demand. Sales for all of our residential brands were up for the quarter and all retail channels are showing strength early in the third quarter. In the commercial market, we had growth in both our modular carpet tile and broadloom product categories. Our market strength in the store planning sector was of particular note during the high risk merchant account.

The response to our SPEAK modular carpet tile and FIT office remodel collections has been very favorable. These high performance products give us added breadth in our line and fulfill the need for high styled modular and broadloom carpet products in today's market. We implemented the planned expansion of both our residential and commercial sales forces in the first half of the year to give us more strategic focus in select markets. Avant Contract, our newest commercial brand, launched its first series of products during the quarter. The Avant Contract brand is primarily focused on the fastest growing commercial segment, the modular office market. The initial impressions of Avant's edgier use of patterns, textures and colors combined with the marketing campaign promoting local and regional Artisans is being well received by the Architectural and Design community. We expect Avant to positively impact our sales in 2014. Our continued investment in products, processes and people has positioned us to continue to outperform the industry at the high end of the marketplace.

"The quarter had a gross profit margin of 26.7% and an operating income of 3.9% of net sales. Our growth initiatives begun in 2012 resulted in increased operating utilization but also added expense as we responded quickly to the increased demand. The additional costs from our Roanoke yarn expansion, the Crown Rug and Colormaster continuous dye house integrations, and the higher sampling costs as we accelerated our investment in new products in 2013, negatively impacted our operating income by over $1 million during the quarter. Our tax rate was 27% for the period.

"Working capital increased by $8,851,000 during the quarter due to higher receivables and inventory to support our higher level of sales. Our inventory turns improved 11% versus the same period in the prior year. Capital leases and expenditures were $3,441,000, while depreciation and amortization was $2,559,000 for the period. We anticipate capital leases and expenditures to be $13,500,000 and depreciation and amortization to be $10,300,000 for the entire year of 2013. Total debt increased $7,873,000 during the quarter. Availability under our credit lines was $25.0 million at quarter end. Subsequent to quarter end, we amended and extended our senior credit facility to accommodate the growth in working capital as we continue to grow our sales. In addition, in early July we completed the acquisition of Robertex Associates, a maker of fine wool products.

"We are pleased to see residential industry growth in the second quarter as this signals to us that the recovery in the housing sector has finally impacted the carpet market. Despite potential macro-economic issues, we believe that conditions in the upper-end residential portion of our industry will continue to improve during 2013. The commercial market appears to be stable with the highest growth in the modular carpet tile segment. We continue our commitment to growing our market share with innovative products, refinement of our manufacturing processes and investment in our people," Frierson concluded.

After taking into account the $5.3 million, preferred interest in net income attributable to the offshore merchant account of the 24,655,554 outstanding Class B Convertible Preferred Units as of June 30, 2013, which were issued during the second quarter of 2012 and the first quarter of 2013 (the "Class B Units" and the "Class B Unitholders"), the result for the quarter ended June 30, 2013, was $0.48 net income per limited partnership unit, which is $0.20 higher than the $0.28 net income per unit of the previous quarter ended March 31, 2013, and $0.49 higher than the $0.01 net loss per unit in the second quarter of 2012.

Operating surplus for the quarter ended June 30, 2013 was $56.6 million, which is $34.0 million higher than the $22.6 million from the first quarter of 2013, and $39.7 million higher than the $16.9 million of the second quarter of 2012. The operating surplus adjusted for the payment of distributions to the Class B Unitholders was $51.4 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2013. Operating surplus is a non-GAAP financial measure used by certain investors to measure the financial performance of the Partnership and other master limited partnerships. Please refer to the section "Appendix A" at the end of the press release, for a reconciliation of this non-GAAP measure to net income.

Revenues for the second quarter of 2013 were $41.8 million compared to $37.8 million in the second quarter of 2012.

Total expenses for the second quarter of 2013 were $30.8 million compared to $25.7 million in the second quarter of 2012 due to higher operating expenses incurred as a result of the higher number of vessels in our fleet. Vessel operating expenses for the second quarter of 2013 amounted to $13.4 million, compared to $11.2 million in the second quarter of 2012. The total expenses for the second quarter of 2013 also include $12.8 million in depreciation and amortization, compared to $12.0 million in the second quarter of 2012. General and administrative expenses for the second quarter of 2013 amounted to $3.4 million, which include a $1.6 million non-cash charge related to the Partnership's Omnibus Incentive Compensation Plans.

In the second quarter of 2013, we reported a gain of $32.0 million related to the sale to a third party of the Partnership's claims against OSG and certain of OSG's subsidiaries regarding the long term bareboat charters of three of the Partnership's product tanker vessels.

Excluding the gain of $32.0 million, total other expense net for the second quarter of 2013 amounted to $3.6 million compared to $8.8 million for the second quarter of 2012. The decrease in the interest expense and finance cost for the second quarter of 2013 reflects the expiration of all interest rate swaps and the reduction of the Partnership's total debt when compared to the second quarter of 2012.

Merchant Warehouse Hires

Merchant Warehouse, a leading innovator of payment technologies and merchant account services, recently announced the addition of Russell Harty as Senior Vice President, Key Accounts and Partner Channel. With more than 20 years in the payments industry, Harty will focus on evaluating and adding new partners and expanding the footprint of Merchant Warehouse solutions, including the Genius Customer Engagement Platform, with partners, value-added resellers and key accounts.

“Technology presents an incredible opportunity for merchants of all sizes today, but not all know how to leverage these capabilities in the most effective way. Merchant Warehouse recognized this struggle and developed solutions that let merchants evolve with the payments space,” said Harty. “Merchant Warehouse is a great example of a company that can effectively respond to their customers’ needs and I’m really looking forward to being part of the high risk merchant account.”

“We’re thrilled to have an industry leader like Russell on board,” said Greg Cohen, chief revenue and strategy officer, Merchant Warehouse. “His sales and leadership experience will prove to be a valuable addition to our partner activities, allowing us to expand Merchant Warehouse’s footprint.”

Harty joins Merchant Warehouse from Hibu, where he served the organization as the Head of U.S. Sales Operations, Payments Division. Prior to Hibu, Harty was Senior Vice President, Retail and Retail Banking Solutions for Ingenico, where he was accountable for tier one, mid-tier, channel (developer/ISV) and banking business development and sales. He also held senior leadership roles at VeriFone and Triton, and has a BA from Lynchburg College.

 She maintained that, although she was just a 15-year-old schoolgirl at the time of the killing, the chief suspect in Erroll’s murder, Sir Jock Delves Broughton (whose wife, Diana, was Erroll’s mistress and a friend of Juanita’s stepmother) had confessed his guilt to her shortly after the murder.

“By the way, Juanita, I don’t want you to be afraid, but the police are following me,” the world-weary Broughton allegedly told her. When she asked why, Broughton explained that they believed he had been responsible for murdering Erroll. “Well, actually I did,” he added. Furthermore, according to Juanita Carberry, Broughton went on to tell her how he shot Erroll and disposed of the gun.

Juanita Carberry said the police wanted her to testify at Broughton’s trial for murder, but she pretended to “act as a stupid child” because she disagreed with the way such cases were conducted. Eventually they branded her an “unreliable witness” and she was not called.

According to Juanita Carberry, Broughton had confided in her only hours after Erroll’s murder, at a lunch party he hosted at his house in Karen, a suburb of Nairobi, attended by Juanita, her stepmother, June, and her governess.

Knowing that the teenager liked horses, Broughton invited Juanita to look at his stables. As they walked out, she was surprised to see a pair of gym shoes with white rubber soles in the smouldering embers of a bonfire in the garden. This struck her as odd, because it was not usual in Kenya to burn even worn-out gym shoes: they would have been given to a servant. Marks made by white pipeclay, used in the manufacture of such shoes, were found on the back seat of the crashed Buick car in which Erroll’s body was found. He had been shot in the head.

Nearly a year later, after a jury in Nairobi had acquitted Broughton, he committed suicide at the Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool.Juanita Carberry believed that Broughton probably also told her stepmother about the murder because the gun — having been recovered by her stepmother’s servants — was found many years later in a shoebox at Malindi, on the coast north of Mombasa, in a workshop owned by her father.

Juanita Carberry revealed none of this until 1971, when she gave an interview to the journalist Cyril Connolly, who had been at Eton with Lord Erroll, and who, with a young reporter, James Fox, had written an article about the case for The Sunday Times . But she withheld Broughton’s confession from Connolly, telling him that she did not want anything she said to be used against him. Only when James Fox interviewed her in 1980, after Connolly’s death, did she blurt out: “There is no mystery. He [Broughton] did it. I can tell you that now. He told me himself the following day.

“We walked down to the stables,” she recalled. “He told me then that he had shot Erroll... He told me not to be frightened when the police came, and he told me about the gun, which he said he had thrown into the Thika falls. He thought the police had followed him and had seen him stop there.”

She told Fox that Broughton had been provoked into murdering Erroll because of his affair with Diana. Although Broughton knew that his wife was planning to divorce him, something finally snapped after she and Erroll had dined and danced together on the night of the murder. “They had gone too far,” Juanita told Fox. “That last dinner was too much and brought home to him that he had really lost. And the fact is that he was in love with Diana.”

The Erroll murder was a gripping and glamorous scandal that shook the decadent Happy Valley coterie and marked the beginning of the end for Kenya’s hedonistic colonial elite, with its heavy drinking and cocaine-fuelled adulterous liaisons.

In his bestselling book about the Erroll affair, White Mischief (1982), Fox ascribed Juanita Carberry’s four decades of reticence to her protective feelings for Broughton, “the only adult who had taken her side in the midst of a host of hard-drinking grown-ups, who were constantly pushing her aside and sending her away”.

The daughter of the 10th Lord Carbery of Castle Freke, a renegade Irish peer, and his second wife (Ma?a), a noted beauty, Juanita Virginia Sistare Carberry was born on May 7 1925 at Nyeri, about 100 miles from Nairobi, and grew up on her father’s coffee farm. When she was three, her mother, a pioneering aviatrix, was killed when her plane crashed at Nairobi airfield, and Juanita was brought up by her promiscuous stepmother, June, and a series of nannies; she was sent to eight boarding schools, attending — from the age of 11 — various Swiss finishing schools, and finally Roedean, a sister school to the one in Sussex, in the Parktown area of Johannesburg.

Her childhood was harsh; her sadistic father, who had dropped his title out of a violent hatred of Britain and had embraced pro-Nazi views, disliked children, especially girls. Juanita recalled: “I was an unwanted brat .” She was dressed and treated as a boy , and confined to a separate wing of the house. Her governess, Isabel Rutt (whom she called “the Rutt”), was often ordered by Juanita’s father to strip her naked and beat her; aged 15, and after one particularly frenzied beating, Juanita left home to live with an uncle, saying she had no wish to grow up “like the rest of that Happy Valley lot”.

In the early 1950s she discovered that her father had been impotent and that her biological parent was probably Maxwell Trench, a white Jamaican who managed her father’s coffee estate, although DNA tests proved inconclusive.

Click on their website http://austpay.com/.

Bankers still worried with Aadhaar authentication

According to a report in the Economic Times on Monday, the Unique Identification Authority of India is pushing for biometric authentication for credit card and ATM transactions, but bankers are reluctant to make changes since technology costs are high.  Bankers argue that upgrading every ATM and point of sale terminal at thousands of merchant outlets will not come cheap, besides travails and risks of a new technology, says the report. But aren’t we forgetting something here? ATM with biometrics is not a new idea. It has been tried and discarded as a failure when the ATMs did not authenticate the biometrics of many underprivileged persons and left them without access to their own funds, especially when banks were closed.

While use of biometric ATMs looks good on paper, its implementation so far has proved costly for the banks as well as for the end-users. On 1 December 2006, Citibank had issued a global release about the launch of its biometric ATM with multi-language voice instruction capability.  It had tied up with a NGO called Swadhar FinAccess and a microfinance firm for Citibank Pragati for accounts. The experiment ended in a whimper. In fact, the drumbeat for biometric ATMs began in 2005 as suggested by this report in The Financial Express.  In 2007, Andhra Bank had launched biometric ATMs and wanted to make the mobile, to cater to the burgeoning microfinance business.

Canara Bank set up its first biometric-based ATM at Dharavi, in Mumbai in 2008 with much fanfare. It was a dual purpose ATM, which accepted cards as well as thumbprints for banking transaction (mostly cash withdrawals). The biometric-based ATM was expected to cater to the needs of working class, especially housemaids and other people in Dharavi. In fact, even after the global financial crisis, the biometric ATMs and tie-ups continued because micro-finance firms were still seen as saviours and had not revealed their exploitative and rapacious side.

The ground reality turned out to be completely different. According to information provided by several non-government organisations (NGOs) spreading financial literacy in that area, the biometric ATMs in Dharavi failed from day one. The reason? Working class there, especially housemaids and other labours do not have fingerprints without which they could not operate the ATM!

Not having fingerprints is just one of the issues with the biometric-based ATMs. The more serious issue is the danger it may pose to the user as thieves may stalk and assault the person to gain access. If the item is secured with a biometric device, the damage to the owner could be irreversible, and potentially cost more than the high risk merchant account. For example, in 2005, Malaysian car thieves cut off the finger of a Mercedes-Benz S-Class owner when attempting to steal his car.

In addition, the biometric-based passwords are irreversible. That means it cannot be re-issued in case of loss or theft. If a token or a password is lost or stolen, it can be cancelled and replaced by a newer version. This is not naturally available in biometrics. If someone's face or fingerprint is compromised from a database, it cannot be cancelled or reissued.

Another problem associated with the biometric-based ATM is its cost, both installation and operations. The biometric-based ATMs, as proposed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) that would facilitate use to Aadhaar data, are more costly than the regular card-based ATMs. While consumers are increasingly complaining about reasonableness of bank charges, the banks themselves are lobbying hard with the RBI, claiming that high cost of technology is making each transaction very expensive. For instance, having encouraged and pushed to obtain corporate accounts of companies, banks are now cribbing about high transaction costs on small withdrawals from ATMs.

For instance, a senior central banker says that each balance inquiry at an ATM costs the bank Rs11 while each transaction costs around Rs18. However, this calls for a serious discussion on the cost-benefit of technology to consumers, since the solution cannot be to load higher costs on to consumers.

And while the UIDAI and RBI are still thinking about using Aadhaar number or fingerprints collected under the UID scheme, for authentication of transactions, the world has moved ahead. World over, fingerprint based ATMs are being replaced by biometric ATMs, which use ‘finger vein scanning’ technology to authenticate the customer's ID. Unlike current fingerprint scanners, the finger vein scanner, developed by Japanese company Hitachi, uses infrared light to analyse the micro veins beneath the surface of the finger. According to Hitachi, it is impossible to fool its machine, as it is not possible to replicate an individual's finger veins. In addition, it does not work with fingers that have been chopped off, the company had said.

In addition, several experts have pointed out that using Aadhaar for identification is completely different than using it for authentication. Especially, when it comes to using biometric data of Aadhaar for payment transactions, the facts are not too encouraging. Several poor people like housemaids and construction labourers are finding it difficult to even enrol for Aadhaar due to lack of a clean fingerprint sample. Some could not even submit sample of their iris due to cataract. In such cases, how will the Aadhaar help in authenticating the card present transaction? Also, why burden the entire banking system with high costs, which will have to be paid by hundreds of million account holders who have no need for biometric identification and have no reason to support biometric authentication systems?

Coming back to the issue of using Aadhaar or UID for authentication card present transactions, it looks good only on paper. As per the latest census, 58.7% households were availing banking services in 2011 as compared with 35.5% in 2001. Notwithstanding these efforts by the RBI and the offshore merchant account, the challenges are enormous. Providing banking coverage to a population of 120 crore and ensuring transactions in these accounts is a daunting task.

While, the government and the RBI have asked banks to accept the Aadhaar number as one of the identification proofs for opening an account, the lenders are not sure about the authentication and verification of these numbers for payment system. The RBI itself was not confident about Aadhaar as it felt that the UID project is not ready for handling secure payment transactions.

According to the Economic Times report, there was a distinct possibility that RBI would ask banks to gradually roll out Aadhaar-based biometric authentication as an additional authentication for card transactions. RBI may not mandate banks immediately, but may nonetheless ask them to upgrade the technology. This is happening at such a time when banks are issuing credit and debit cards based on Europay, MasterCard and Visa (EMV) chip technology, the report said quoting a banker.

According to a report by a "Working Group on Securing Card Present Transactions" of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), there is a need to put in place a series of measures to strengthen the payments’ infrastructure and ecosystem in the country. Inferences drawn from case studies clearly indicate the need to have a much stronger authentication mechanism and reiterate the need for a second factor (2FA) for card present transactions.

The report discusses new systems like EMV chip cards with PIN that has been adopted by many countries and enhancing the current MSD card system with help from biometric identification.

"Aadhaar (issued by UIDAI) authentication using biometrics, provides a strong 'Who you are' factor of authentication. This can be combined with a second 'What you have' or 'What you know' factor to achieve strong customer identification at the point of sale," the report said.

While the option to use biometrics from the UIDAI database looks good, it may, in practice, due to insufficient feasibility tests, may not be a viable option. "The working committee considered biometric, or UID, as the second factor in one of the solution sets; however, the decision to adopt this would depend on various factors like the number of UIDs issued to the population which transacts through cards, the error rates, authentication network capability to handle transaction volumes, network capability to handle enhanced transaction size and acquiring infrastructure," the report said.

According to the Economic Times report, another working group set up to study the recommendation of the previous group has recently submitted its report to the RBI. “(the) panel has pegged the cost of banks' readiness for Aadhaar at Rs4,259 crore compared with Rs3,556 crore the banking industry has to spend to upgrade machines to match a different technology they think lowers the risk of card frauds,” the report says.

Unfortunately, instead of addressing all the problems related with the Aadhaar, the UPA government is forcing its usage and acceptance, that too without any Parliamentary approval for the UIDAI scheme. The hard push for biometric ATMs is just one of the examples about how technology is being used to exclude the needy, without even thinking about the cost.

New phone upgrade plans akin to renting

The phone companies call them installment plans, but I think of them as phone rental. Before you pay off the cost of the phone, you're entitled to hand it back in to get a new one -- every six months with Verizon Wireless or T-Mobile or every year with AT&T.It's a good deal for some people on T-Mobile. Unlike the rival plans, T-Mobile's Jump comes with insurance to cover loss and damage. And it doesn't add that much to the cost of the phone. With Verizon's Edge and AT&T's Next, you're essentially paying for the same phone twice.

When you buy an iPhone 5, you might pay $200 for it, but it actually costs $650. Your phone company covers the difference and makes it up over the life of the two-year service contract. On the phone bill, it just appears as a service fee for voice, text and data. But that fee actually includes an amount that helps the phone companies cover the difference. The service fee doesn't go down, however, even after you've covered the third party payment gateway, or paid the phone off.

With AT&T's and Verizon's installment plans, you're paying the full $650 for the iPhone, spread out over 20 or 24 months. But once again, the service fee doesn't go down, even though there's no "difference" the phone companies need to make up. So you're paying for the phone through the installment payments, plus what's baked into the service fee.

Earlier this year, T-Mobile broke the service fee into two fees -- one for the actual service, and one for the phone. So once you've paid off the phone, your total bill goes down. And if you sign up for Jump, you're paying a $10 monthly fee for that, mostly for the insurance, but you're not paying for the phone twice.Even though you're paying more for the phone with Verizon's and AT&T's plans, it might still be worthwhile if you're already planning to upgrade more frequently than every other year. Both take the hassle out of trying to sell your old device.

Here's a closer look at the three plans to see if they are right for you. I'm using prices for Samsung's Galaxy S4 in the calculations, so actual costs may vary. Keep in mind all three plans are optional, so you can still buy phones the old way.Six months after you first sign up for Jump, you're entitled to two phone upgrades every 12 months. You can upgrade twice in the same month, but you'd have to wait a full year for the next one. It's better to spread upgrades out to about six months apart.

If you lose or damage your phone: No problem. The Jump plan replaces insurance, which typically costs $8 a month. So it's just $2 a month more for those who already get insurance to replace phones that get lost, don't work, have water damage or have cracked screens.If you just want an upgrade: Simply turn in your old phone when you get your new one. T-Mobile will refurbish and resell it.

The catch: T-Mobile charges a down payment -- $150 in the case of Galaxy S4. It's the same as you pay when you get your first phone, but you'll be paying that each time you upgrade. If your phone is lost or damaged, and it's not covered by warranty, you pay a deductible of up to $175. In that case, there's no down payment if you are replacing it with the same model, but you have to pay both the deductible and the down payment if you want to upgrade to a different model.

Cost analysis: You break even at 16 months. That is, you have $160 left in payments for your phone, which gets waived when you upgrade through Jump. But you have paid $160 for Jump by that point. At month 17, you pay more for Jump than what you would have to make up in remaining installments. But Jump gives you insurance during that period.You're better off with Jump if you upgrade before the 16-month mark, but it's still more expensive than waiting out the two years, when the phone is normally due for an upgrade. Let's say you upgrade the maximum twice a year. That's three extra phones over those two years. The fourth is the one you would have gotten anyway when the two years are up. At Galaxy S4 prices, that works out to $690 over two years for the luxury -- $450 for the phones and $240 for the cost of Jump. If you would have gotten insurance anyway, figure you're paying just $498 more.

ou're essentially paying twice for the phone. In order to upgrade, you must already have paid at least 50 percent of the cost of the phone. You hit that threshold after one year, so if you upgrade six months early, you have six months of payments to make right away to be eligible. Your new phone comes with new installment payments, even though you've just covered the next six months of payments. You're essentially doubling the payments over those six months.

Also, it's open only to those on Share Everything plans. Customers still on Verizon's older, unlimited data plans are not eligible and must switch to a limited-use plan to participate.Normally, you pay $200 up front, so for a $650 phone, $450 is the minimum premium you pay to upgrade more frequently. If you haven't reached the 50 percent threshold yet, you'll be paying even more. Upgrade every six months as allowed, and you face 12 additional monthly payments over two years (six each year). Those 12 payments add up to $325, assuming the same retail price for the Galaxy S4 replacement. With the additional $450 you're already paying over the normal way of buying phones, you're paying an extra $775 over two years to upgrade every six months. As is the case with third party merchant account, you might be better off breaking a contract and trying to resell the old phone, but Edge removes the hassle.

In a matter of a few years, Smith went from paying out-of-pocket for school – attending when he could afford it, working when he could not – to staring down more than $40,000 in student loan debt.Instead of living paycheck-to-paycheck and putting any extra in savings, he was suddenly flush with cash. His financial aid allowed him to live an expensive lifestyle in college, he says.The tipping point was when he approached the school's student loan office to get help with his $3,000 tuition payment, he says. He walked away with $16,000 for that quarter, starting a cycle that would continue for the rest of his undergraduate career.

"Every quarter I got more free money," he says. "I needed new clothes. I needed a cool car. I needed a nice place to stay.""I always took out way more than I needed," Meehan said in an email. "I thought if it as 'free money' that I would eventually have to pay back when I was living like Carrie from Sex and the City."

Now 31, with a bachelor's and two master's under her belt, Meehan's student loans total nearly $200,000. She currently works as an online media manager at Rosemont College in Pennsylvania, but said she makes less now than she did straight out of undergrad.In some cases, the borrowers are so-called nontraditional students. Over the age of 25, these undergrads are considered financially independent from their parents. More than 50 percent of students pursuing a bachelor's degree fall into this category.

Some, like Smith, have families of their own. Others are saddled with expenses such as medical bills and car payments.With minimal income – either because of unemployment or underemployment – they have little-to-no expected family contribution, a figure the U.S. Department of Education uses to calculate need. This often allows students to take out federal student loans to cover the full cost of attendance, including housing, personal and living expenses.

The University of Oregon estimates the total cost for undergraduates living off campus at nearly $24,000 for the 2013-2014 school year. Less than $10,000 of that goes to tuition, leaving students with refund checks of roughly $14,000 each year.While these refunds are intended to go toward educational expenses and living expenses – food, rent and utilities – no one monitors how students spend this money.

Fake money is so common all should beware

Technology has made it easier for criminals to produce counterfeit U.S. currency, and local merchants are saying that they see plenty of fake bills these days. It is not an epidemic, but there are so many instances of people trying to pass off counterfeit bills that many businesses are starting to scrutinize even the lower denominations, like $5 bills, before accepting them from customers.

My research shows that of all U.S. currency in circulation, about one to two percent of it is counterfeit, which accounts for an estimated $261 million in counterfeit money. I have my doubts (the numbers are likely to be much higher), but it may be that areas like ours experience a higher concentration of phony money. In any event, even if the numbers seem to suggest that the problem is not a big one, a bit of caution is certainly in order. One merchant in Modesto told me that she encounters phony bills almost every day, so it seems that being careful is the prudent thing to do. I recently sold a small boat and was paid in $20 bills. Needless to say, all of them were legitimate, but it was worth the extra few minutes to examine each bill before accepting it.

Interestingly, the mass producers of counterfeit money do not use it for their own purchasing purposes. Instead, they sell the currency for approximately 20-30 cents on the dollar. The very-high-quality fakes go for as high a 50 percent of the face value of each bill. In addition, while there are plenty of people using home computers and printers to produce phony money, their impact on the economy and individual victims appears to be less than that of the bigger operators.

The U.S. government has a high stake in protecting the integrity of its currency and to maintain public confidence in its legal tender; high risk merchant account, it takes painstaking measures to make it difficult to produce counterfeit bills. Some of these measures include using color-shifting ink, red and blue threads embedded in the paper and watermark images that can be seen with enhanced lighting. Still, technology allows counterfeiters to produce near-perfect counterfeits. It seems like the most skilled counterfeiters are always able to stay just a step or two ahead the government's efforts to foil their efforts.

Many businesses still only pay attention to denominations of 20s, 50s and 100s, yet I see criminals taking advantage of this practice and using fake 5s and 10s to commit their crimes. People and merchants would do well to check $5 bills and larger to help stop this trend. Keep in mind that when you accept a counterfeit bill, even unknowingly, you are stuck with it. It is illegal to pass that bill on, and if you do, at minimum you may end up being named in a criminal investigation. If the government can prove that you knew it was counterfeit, criminal charges will be likely.

The rule for protecting yourself is to check currency (especially $20 or larger bills) before accepting them during purchasing transactions. The quickest ways include checking for the normally distinctive feel of the paper. If it feels smooth, it is probably fake. The newer bills contain a security thread that is embedded in the paper and runs vertically on one side of the note. This thread contains tiny letters spelling out the value of the note. So, for a twenty dollar bill, you will see the words, in barely 1/10 of an inch in size, "USA Twenty." In addition, the $20 note will contain a watermark image, depicting former president Andrew Jackson on the lower right hand side. It can be seen when holding the note up to a light. The ink on U.S. currency does not run when exposed to water and the color of the "20" on the lower right corner of the note will shift from copper to green, depending on the angle viewed.

When getting cash from the bank or ATM do not assume that all of the bills have been screened - there may well be counterfeit bills, so take time to examine them. Do not delay in reporting any counterfeit bill finds immediately to the bank or other entity that transferred it to you. And be particularly careful when receiving a large amount of cash for such things as appliances, boats, cars, etc., as it is a matter of odds when it comes to the risk as a particular transaction involves higher numbers of bills.

If you wish more information on this subject, there are many resources on the web to help you get all the facts and protect yourself. Taking a few seconds to check the currency during purchasing or selling transactions may well save you a lot of hard-earned money.

Thanks, Bill. Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for joining us today. After the market closed, we reported quarterly diluted earnings per share of $1.20, up 21% over the prior year, driven primarily by loan growth and share repurchases. During the quarter, we generated return on equity of 23% and returned approximately $440 million of capital to shareholders through repurchases and common dividends.

Our Direct Banking business again delivered strong results during the second quarter. Slide 4 of the earnings presentation shows Discover total loan growth at 6% over the prior year. This organic growth was driven by a 5% increase in card receivables and a combined 10% increase in private, student and personal loans.Card receivables growth continues to outpace our primary peers. This strong growth was driven by increased wallet share with existing customers and also new accounts.

Discover it, our new flagship card product drove strong new account growth in the quarter, even while relying less on promotional balance transfers. Discover it's position in the market continues to be highly differentiated with superior customer value and service and the early results of our advertising campaign are positive. This campaign, offshore merchant account, other card marketing initiatives, and our strength and rewards have not only helped us grow new accounts, but have also encouraged our large loyal customer base to spend and revolve with us.

Also in card, I want to announce that Discover has become the exclusive affinity card issuer for 5 universities, including the University of Nebraska. We are excited about the affinity channel for long-term new account and sales growth, as we leverage our cash rewards and customer service.

President Aquino's SONA 2013

This is my fourth SONA; only two remain. Almost four years have passed since I was approached by various camps to urge me to run for the presidency. They said: “We know that our country’s problems cannot be solved in the blink of an eye, in one year, or even within the six-year term of a President. But just begin, and we will be one with you in nurturing change.”

Even then, I was aware of the significant problems that I would have to face. From being a candidate, to being President, or even after I step down from office, the difficulties I will have to face are no joke. Widespread transformation of society is my objective, and I am aware that there are many things and many people I would have to confront in order to achieve this. But I was not raised by my parents to back down in the face of challenges. I would not be able to live with myself if I had refused the chance to alleviate the suffering the Filipino should not have to endure.

We have answered the call, and those who have been with us from the start have only grown in number. I believe that if what I have been doing is right, then our allies will only grow. Just this May, I asked you, Boss, are we going in the right direction? Your reply: “Yes, and let us accelerate the transformation of society.” I asked for allies that would help steer the country in one direction, and you delivered. The truth is, not only the majority, not even nine of twelve, but nine of the offshore merchant account  are individuals that I recommended to you. The message of the past election is clear: Yes, let us keep going, let us add to the 8,581 sitios that we have electrified; let us add to the 28,398 families who were once informal settlers but who finally have, or will soon have, decent homes; let us increase the not less than 40 billion pesos in additional funds that go to education, health, social services, and many others because of the right and more efficient collection of taxes; we feel all the other tangible signs that society is truly changing. I have become even more optimistic because of your message; it is clear that I am not alone in carrying these responsibilities. How can I not be encouraged, when even the likes of Mr. Ni?o Aguirre are helping shape our future? Just think: Though unable to walk, he climbed all the way to his fourth-floor precinct, just so that he could vote and contribute to true social transformation. Thank you, Mr. Aguirre.

There is no shortage of Filipinos who are ready to pitch in, and this is the source of the change we now experience. The strategy—maximize opportunities for all, especially for those most in need. We are not content to wait for the trickle-down effect; we cannot leave their fate—their receiving the benefits of progress—to chance. What we call inclusive growth—this all-encompassing progress—is the principle that drives every initiative, every action, and every decision of your government. The only ones who will be left behind are those who chose not to venture onwards with us, simply because they did not seize the opportunity.

The basis for this principle: Widespread opportunity is the key to comprehensive and sustained progress. Let us not forget that these opportunities are but seeds. We must water them with diligence, nourish them with determination, and cultivate them with dedication. Let us take a look at our TESDA-DOLE scholars. Of the 503,521 people who have graduated from their programs, an estimated six out of ten have found jobs. Before this, according to studies conducted by DBM, from 2006 to 2008, only 28.5 percent of TESDA graduates found jobs. Last year, under TESDA’s IT-BPO program, 70.9 percent of the graduates found employment. Under the electronics and semiconductor program, the percentage of employed graduates reached 85 percent. It is clear: You are the ones who will shape this growth, you are the ones who will determine whether the fruits of our labors become sweet and ripe for the picking, or if you will let them rot away and waste the chances that this new chapter in our history has given us.

Let us go through everything one by one. Our objective to expand the reach of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program: achieved. The over 700,000 household beneficiaries we found upon coming into office in 2010 have now grown to almost 4 million households in the three years of our administration.

There is more: According to research conducted by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies, compared with those who only finished the elementary level, the income of high school graduates is 40 percent higher. Is it not right that we maximize the help we give these families, so that our young beneficiaries can finish high school, thereby helping them make the most out of the benefits of this program? That is why next year, families with children up to 18 years old will be included in this program so that their children will be able to finish high school.

Let us move on to education. Our goal is to raise the quality of learning that our children undertake, so that once they finish their schooling, they can seize the opportunities now opening up in society: accomplished. We have finally erased the backlog we inherited in books and high risk merchant account , and if Secretary Armin Luistro continues to demonstrate true grit, even the backlog we inherited in classrooms will also be erased this year. And there is even more good news: Now, we also have the ability to prepare for the additional needs that the implementation of the K to 12 program will require.

The problems that plagued Brother Armin in the DepEd are no laughing matter. Just think: one textbook used to be priced at 58 pesos; since he assumed office, the price of the exact same textbook has gone down to 30 pesos. What would have happened if we had been paying the proper price from the beginning? If we had saved the difference of 28 pesos for all the books bought, at five textbooks for each of the estimated 20.7 million students in our public school system, the equivalent would amount to almost 2.9 billion pesos. These savings alone could have funded our plans to repair and rehabilitate around 9,502 classrooms.

If Brother Armin didn’t have strength of will, he could have just left this culture of negligence in his agency for his successor to deal with. He could have also left the backlog, as well as the growing gap of needs because of the rising number of enrollees each year. But instead of being content, instead of saying, “This will do. My job is done,” Brother Armin will build even more chairs and classrooms, and will buy even more books, to ensure that even the needs in future years will also be met.

The proof is in the data: This sector grew 3.3 percent in the first three months of 2013. This is triple the 1.1 percent growth it recorded in the same time period in 2012. That is why we continue to sow initiatives that will certainly bear the fruits of even greater progress for our farmers.

For example, the coconut sector. According to research conducted in 2009, coconut farmers make up one of the poorest sectors in the country. Let us look at the process of growing coconuts: Once planted, farmers wait seven years for the coconut tree to bear fruit; but after this, two generations will be able to benefit without doing anything else apart from harvesting the fruit. We have the potential to vastly increase the income of this sector if we can foster a culture that truly encourages hard work and productivity. The solution: intercropping.

That is why various government initiatives are in place to help free our fisherfolk from the broad net cast by poverty. An example would be our initiative for Bataraza in Palawan. The waters here brim with fish. But because the fish cannot be brought to the merchants on time, still fresh, the fishermen end up having to dry the fish and sell tuyo instead. It is such a waste, because every three kilos of lapu-lapu is only equivalent to one kilo of tuyo. What if the freshness of the fish could be preserved in a cold storage facility? You could go to the merchant and still sell your catch at full price. You would exert the same amount of effort, but you would receive the right compensation for it. That is why the cold storage facility in Bataraza has already been built. In addition, we are also constructing new piers in strategic areas to raise productivity and income. We are constructing and adding new roads, bridges, and other kinds of infrastructure, including various services, for our fisherfolk.

If there is one topic my name is often associated with, that would have to be Hacienda Luisita. I would like to inform you that back in February, in compliance with the decision of the Supreme Court, the Department of Agrarian Reform has completed the list of qualified beneficiaries for the land in Luisita. According to Secretary Gil de los Reyes, the process to determine the beneficiaries’ lots began last week, and the turnover of these lots will begin in September of this year.

This is an English translation of the SONA

That is why various government initiatives are in place to help free our fisherfolk from the broad net cast by poverty. An example would be our initiative for Bataraza in Palawan. The waters here brim with fish. But because the fish cannot be brought to the merchants on time, still fresh, the fishermen end up having to dry the fish and sell tuyo instead. It is such a waste, because every three kilos of lapu-lapu is only equivalent to one kilo of tuyo. What if the freshness of the fish could be preserved in a cold storage facility? You could go to the merchant and still sell your catch at full price. You would exert the same amount of effort, but you would receive the right compensation for it. That is why the cold storage facility in Bataraza has already been built. In addition, we are also constructing new piers in strategic areas to raise productivity and income. We are constructing and adding new roads, bridges, and other kinds of infrastructure, including various services, for our fisherfolk.

The DILG, BFAR, and Coast Guard are also tightly monitoring irresponsible and unrestrained forms of fishing; this I ask of our fishermen: allow our fish to repopulate. I ask for your solidarity in caring for your own livelihood. As you no doubt see, the state has already opened up opportunities for you, but the result is in your hands.

If there is one topic my name is often associated with, that would have to be Hacienda Luisita. I would like to inform you that back in February, in compliance with the decision of the Supreme Court, the Department of Agrarian Reform has completed the list of qualified beneficiaries for the land in Luisita. According to Secretary Gil de los Reyes, the process to determine the beneficiaries’ lots began last week, and the turnover of these lots will begin in September of this year.

As for other large tracts of land: We have long tasked the third party merchant account, DENR, LRA, and Land Bank to develop a framework for speeding up the parceling out of land. I would like to remind everyone: Correct data is the first step to the orderly implementation of CARPER. But we inherited a land records system that is problematic and defective. This is why, from the start, the DOJ, LRA, DENR, and DAR have worked to fix this system, and now we are at a point where we can guarantee that in the next year, all notices of coverage will have been served for lands covered by comprehensive agrarian reform.

It is clear: The state was established to serve you. If you have health problems, the government must care for you; in times of illness, it should be there to give aid and support. What has our government done in this regard?

Our goal to extend PhilHealth coverage to more of our countrymen has been achieved. When we began, 62 percent of Filipinos were enrolled; now, that number stands at 81 percent. The remaining number still not on our lists are those we are seeking to identify, including those in the informal settlers’ and indigenous people’s sectors. We are counting on the cooperation of our local governments to ensure that all of our countrymen are enrolled in the system.

It is not just PhilHealth’s roster of enrollees that is growing: so is its scope of services. The past year saw the launch of the Z Benefit Package. This past February, this was upgraded with the Expanded Z Benefit Package. The poorest of the poor can now get free medical care at public hospitals for more medical conditions than ever before. Last year, breast cancer, prostate cancer, and acute leukemia were included on the list of covered conditions; today, coronary bypass, and corrective surgery for holes and defective blood vessels in the heart, are also included in the package.

All these health benefits would go to waste if our health care facilities are substandard, or inaccessible to our countrymen in the provinces. This is why we have gone all-out in funding health care infrastructure projects: These past three years, we have budgeted a total of 33 billion pesos for the improvement and modernization of 4,518 hospitals, rural health units, and barangay health stations nationwide. Among these are Region 1 Medical Center in Dagupan City, which has successfully completed five kidney transplants in the last year; the Bicol Regional Training and Teaching Hospital in Legazpi; the Vicente Sotto Medical Center in Cebu; and the Northern Mindanao Medical Center in Cagayan de Oro, which, according to Secretary Ike Ona of the DOH, now have the capacity to perform open heart surgery due to upgraded facilities and equipment. There is also the Davao Regional Hospital in Tagum City, the first cancer center outside Metro Manila.

Regarding disaster preparedness: Our goal to develop mechanisms to protect the Filipino people from natural calamities, we have also achieved. Among these are the effective services brought about by the joint forces of the Geohazard Mapping and Assessment Program and Project NOAH of the DOST. This past year, we completed a multihazard mapping of the 28 most vulnerable locations in the country. A similar endeavor for the Greater Metro Manila Area will be completed by 2014. Geohazard maps for 496 cities and municipalities have also been completed. The remaining 1,138 covering every last corner of the country will be finished before the end of 2015. Not only have these maps increased in number, they are also more detailed and refined, which is why we will be able to more accurately identify high-risk areas.
From the time Project NOAH was launched, a total of 525 automated water level monitoring stations and automated rain gauges have been installed in 18 major river basins throughout the country. We also continue to modernize our weather detection technology, with Doppler radars, tsunami detectors, and alerting sirens.

But simply distributing high-tech equipment and new technology is not enough. We also need to train the end-users of this equipment in understanding, using, and disseminating the information gained. When the weather is bad, they no longer rely solely on wind speed for their forecasts; they can also predict the volume of rainfall, and they can provide correct and timely warnings so our communities can prepare accordingly.

We are also remedying the problem of flooding in Metro Manila. Imagine: When Ondoy hit, an estimated 3,600 cubic meters per second of rainfall flowed down from the Sierra Madre. But the capacity of the channels through which these flowed can only support 1,000 cubic meters per second. Where would the difference of 2,600 cubic meters per second go? These are the sudden torrents of water that overflow into low-lying areas and become flash floods.

Haven’t we all heard before that “waterways are inalienable?” What this means is that the channels through which water passes should be for that purpose alone. The problem is, in addition to the lack of adequate drainage, certain structures are built, obstructing these drainage systems, a situation compounded by the trash of those living around it. To solve this problem, we are coordinating with our LGUs to safely and successfully relocate our informal settlers. In addition, a legal team led by Secretary Leila de Lima is preparing to file cases against those who have closed or obstructed our waterways.

We are not content with simply passing the blame and pointing fingers. Our action: an allocation of 6.2 billion pesos to prevent flooding throughout Metro Manila. This includes the construction of the Blumentritt Interceptor Catchment area. The entire project is 3.3 kilometers in length; and once it is completed, it will be able to catch the equivalent of 14 Olympic-sized swimming pools of water. When the rains hit, the rainwater now has somewhere to go, and will no longer accumulate on our streets. This project was started in March, and we aim to complete it by next year.
Government has been fulfilling its obligation to the people, but let us ask ourselves: How have I contributed to the solution? If someone dumps trash into a river, confront them; if you see a building being built above a creek, report it to the correct authorities. We will only drown in our problems if we do nothing.

Even after the storms have passed, our work to restore normalcy to the lives of calamity-struck families does not end. Through the cooperation of the government, and the private sector, 9,377 houses have been erected for the victims of typhoon Sendong. An additional 4,374 homes will be built before the end of the following year. We ask for patience and understanding, the process has been delayed because of the complex process of land acquisition; in truth, if discussions on other tracts of land go well, we will be able to construct an additional 2,719 houses.

We also aim to turn over a total of 53,106 homes to our countrymen who were left homeless by the onslaught of typhoon Pablo. We began to hand over houses in May; and we will complete another 17,609 homes by the end of the year. And by the time we finish the 35,447 homes still to be completed by 2014, all the families who felt nature’s wrath will once again find shelter under their own roofs.
Still on the subject of housing, this time for our men and women in uniform: More than a year ago, we had already built 21,800 housing units for our police force and soldiers. For Phase II of this project, we have already built an additional 26,050 homes out of our target of 31,200, and the rest will be completed by next month.

Apart from housing, livelihood projects are being implemented for the benefit of our troops. Several thousand hectares of land in three of our military camps—namely, Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija, Camp Kibaritan in Bukidnon, and Camp Peralta in Capiz—will be the venues for these livelihood projects, which will give our soldiers additional income through plantations of bamboo, coffee, cacao, and palm oil. If before, soldiers were concerned solely with defending us, now, even military retirees can participate in improving our economy.

But our quest to find solutions to all the other problems we inherited regarding national defense does not stop here. Consider this: In 1986, there were an estimated 250,000 policemen and soldiers protecting a total of 55 million Filipinos. Today, we still have an estimated 250,000 policemen and soldiers, who protect 95 million Filipinos. Our population has almost doubled, while the number of our protectors has not changed.

We are sure to have critics who will say “Is this really a problem? Just add more policemen and soldiers. You can even reduce unemployment that way.” If only it were that simple. Let us look at the situation. The common pension scheme works like this: both members and employers contribute to the pension. Their contributions serve as capital for reinvestment, and the gains of these investments will in turn fund the retiring members’ pensions. But what is the true situation of the AFP and PNP pensions? No contributions have been made, but there are payments to make. Apart from this, the pensions of retirees have been indexed to the salaries of active personnel. This means that if the salaries of those in the service increase, so too will the pensions received by retirees or qualified families. Yearly, there are more and more men and women retiring, so, naturally, the obligations that must be paid out also increase. What is worse is that funds from the national budget are being used for these growing obligations: In 2012, 54.48 billion pesos were spent on soldiers’ and policemen’s pensions. This year, that figure will rise to 61.29 billion. By 2016, it will be at 80.64 billion. Our pension deficit will keep growing and growing and growing, eating into the budget allocation for other social services. How then do we add more servicemen, given such a context?

We need a system that fulfills our civic obligations to our policemen and armed forces; and it is likely that we will request the assistance of the GSIS in this regard. We are currently studying the feasibility of using reclaimed land to generate funds that will form part of the solution. After all, we cannot surprise the GSIS and ask them to account for the entirety of our needs, which is why an even more thorough study will be conducted to create a fair, sustainable, and clear mechanism for the pensions of PNP and AFP personnel. I call on Congress today: Let us review PD 1638 and RA 8551 to ensure that these pensions are timely, and balanced against national needs.

We see an equivalent solution for the problems that the SSS pensions will soon face. Consider that, since 1980, across-the-board pension increases occurred 21 times, but actual pension contribution increases only occurred twice. As a result, the SSS has accumulated an estimated 1.1 trillion pesos in unfunded liability. According to a study done in 2011, this shortfall will increase by 8 percent per annum, eventually resulting in the complete consumption of the fund 28 years from now. If this happens, the next generation is certain to suffer.

We believe that it is time to amend the SSS Pension Scheme. We must establish measures that remedy the outflow of funds. If we add 0.6 percent to the contribution rate, it will immediately deduct 141 billion pesos from the unfunded liability of the SSS. If we begin to invest in our future today, no further problems will be handed down to the next generation of Filipinos.

When it comes to our national police, our goal to strengthen their capabilities so that they may better fulfill their mandate: accomplished. Beginning this 2013, 30,000 policemen will finally be able go back to doing police work because we will be hiring civilian personnel who will focus on administrative work. After all, the skills and abilities of our police would be put to waste if we keep them imprisoned in the four corners of an office.

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Minimum funding not enough

There is no formula which accurately defines an adequate school budget in Massachusetts. However, I would argue that a budget reflecting the minimum net school spending figure derived from the state's foundation budget formula established under the Education Reform Act of 1993, can serve as a definition of inadequacy. It has been demonstrated that the Foundation formula underestimated health insurance and special education cost projections by at least $2.1 billion statewide as of last year. School systems have been forced to under-fund regular education classroom instruction and/or compensate by going beyond the formula and exceeding minimum net school spending by an average of 14 percent.

In 2012-13, Worcester funded its schools at 99 percent of its required minimum, while contributing 30.1 percent of its total budget toward its Foundation Budget minimum requirement. This placed the city in the bottom 2 percent of the 328 school districts in Massachusetts. Worcester's surrounding communities contributed on average 64.9 percent of their budgets toward their school foundation budget, and contributed on average 28.8 percent above their required minimum. Since 1998, Worcester has consistently contributed less than one percent above minimum. The only exception was 2009, when it funded the schools at 1.5 percent above minimum. While many communities are taxing at or near their levy limit, Worcester has assessed at millions of dollars below its levy limit for years.

The FY14 school budget approved by the City Council will be accompanied by an allocation from free cash putting it right at minimum net school spending. Under this budget, hundreds of elementary students will attend classes of 27 or more students. In a high-poverty urban system, this situation should be third party payment gateway.

During the FY13 budget hearings, a number of City Councilors expressed concern about the elementary class size situation and, in June, 2012, the city manager and superintendent issued a joint recommendation to hire an independent third party to determine a realistic five year school budget. That recommendation was never acted upon. During the FY14 budget deliberations, my perception was that the City Council thought that funding at the minimum level (which defines inadequacy, as explained in my opening) was a significant accomplishment.

The city uses a formula agreed upon between the city manager and the former superintendent to assess the school department for administrative services. While the city has increased its charges by 19.8 percent since FY08, the actual administrative cost on the school side of the budget has only increased by 2.4 percent, despite an increase of 5.1 percent in student population.

According to the most recent data, the school department spends $4.3 million on administration. The city claims $4.9 million toward required net school spending for its administrative costs for the schools. In no other Massachusetts city does the municipality claim to spend more on school administration than the school district. In fact, among other Gateway Cities, none claim anything close to half of the amount that the school system spends. Worcester cannot afford to credit charges against the schools if they do not represent actual service delivery, since every dollar so credited becomes unavailable to educate its students. The time has come to change this practice.

Each year, the school system generates over $3 million in Medicaid payments that go into the city coffers instead of the schools. These funds are generated exclusively by services performed by school personnel and are intended to reimburse the schools. Funds that only exist because of the school department should be applied toward the operation of the schools.

In some recent years, the city has assessed the schools a 3 percent charge for processing Federal grants. In other years, a 1 percent charge has been assessed. The difference is almost $900,000 not available for classroom instruction. Most communities do not charge their schools a fee for this processing, and neither should Worcester.

No one should underestimate the challenges that Charities Online, the new way of claiming Gift Aid, is bringing to the charity sector. While the more adventurous may already have mastered it, many charities have not and might not even realise that the challenge is coming. The real crunch will come at the end of September when the old Gift Aid claim forms will no longer be accepted and Charities Online will be impossible to ignore.

Part of the problem is that Charities Online is not one system but an unholy trinity, with three ways of making claims in one. The route you follow depends largely on the size of the tax claims that your charity makes. These options reflect the diversity of the charity sector.

Many charities will use the spreadsheets that can be downloaded from the HM Revenue & Customs website. This might be relatively painless for most, but larger charities need to develop a ‘database-to-database’ solution and need either to acquire third party software or develop their own. It is unclear whether all software providers will be ready in time. Those smaller charities that do not wish to use the internet can use paper forms, but these are cumbersome to use. Will some charities with small claims simply not bother?

Complying with Charities Online cannot be done overnight. There is an activation process to go through, so it is important to leave plenty of time to get ready. Nor will many find the Government Gateway – a single page on which to register for online government services – easy to use.

Many charities will wonder why these changes were necessary. There will be some advantages for the charity sector, including speedier payments, but the changes benefit HMRC more, mainly by saving significantly on processing costs. The information submitted with claims will also enable them to be policed by HMRC in a more targeted and effective way. Charities need to understand that HMRC will be able to pick up errors in claims much more easily than in the past, so those who have got into bad habits should beware.

HMRC has faced a daunting challenge in trying to communicate these changes to 100,000 charities in a short period of time. Sector groups have done their best to help. We have urged HMRC to ensure that charities are given the time that they need to adapt and were successful in getting a six-month grace period. But the time is coming when we might need to seek some limited extensions to this, particularly where a charity uses the database-to-database solution. The transition to Charities Online is far from over.

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Secure Electrans bids to bring chip

Secure Electrans has been working closely with both regulatory organisations alongside industry competitors in efforts to raise standards via the implementation of an Evaluation and Certification Framework. This aims to implement a single scheme for security in payment terminals and cards, incorporating recognition of multiple security certification card schemes and banking organisations across Europe.

Of the ￡45 billion per year spent online in the UK2, over ￡3 billion is either fraudulent or lost due to abandoned transactions 3. Under the current online payment system, 'card-not-present' transactions account for two thirds of all fraudulent card activity, leaving ecommerce as the weak link in card transaction security. This is exacerbated by the increased sophistication of cybercriminal activity, which is creating a real strain on the existing ecommerce infrastructure.

The Secure Electrans' HomePay device represents a simple, secure and convenient solution to online transactions for both merchants and consumers. Merchants or those that provide their payment processing simply add the Chip&PIN option to their checkout page. For the consumer the HomePay device is the size of a small calculator and can be connected to a home computer via USB or can access mobile devices via Bluetooth when on the move. The payment is made in exactly the same way as a shop Chip&PIN device (card-present and off-line PIN verified), providing the consumer and merchant the same security assurances online as in the high street.

The simplicity of HomePay overcomes an additional problem with current ecommerce transactions, which is that many customers are put off from buying online due to the increasing complexity of offshore merchant account, as merchants try to reduce their exposure to fraud. Indeed, current merchant examples show that between 6 and 60% of all Verified by Visa / MasterCard SecureCode / 3D-Secure transactions are abandoned4.

HomePay operates through the multi-billion pound global and trusted Chip&PIN infrastructure, and has the potential to create a standardised payment processing architecture for online transactions. Merchants would benefit from significant costs savings as Chip&PIN transaction fees are lower than the 'card-not-present' rates. This also will protect the merchant against significant chargeback costs incurred from current payment providers.

Secure Electrans' HomePay system is currently in trial phase within the UK for online shopping, smart energy pre-payment and mobile payment.

Chris Jarman, Managing Director of Secure Electrans commented: "With annual increases in ecommerce payments, it is important to bring the security and simplicity of the payment process up to a standard consumers have come to expect when paying by card on the high street. HomePay goes beyond security alone - simplicity is essential too, and consumers will no longer have to fill out page after page when checking out online; the sensation will be just like paying for a product in a shop, minus the queue!"

"We are delighted with the significant progress made by the HomePay device in the recent OSeC pilot project and audit." said the OSeC coordinator Regine Quentmeier of SRC representing the German Banking Industry Committee. "We believe that the process of implementing a Common CC Certification Scheme for SEPA is vital for raising standards and transparency within the industry in Europe. Secure Electrans have achieved an outstanding result."

A spokesperson for CESG added: "CESG acknowledges the work that has been performed by a technical community (JTEMs) consisting of equipment developers, evaluation laboratories, European Common Criteria certification bodies, and payment scheme representatives, in the production of a detailed specification (protection profile and associated supporting documents) suitable for use in the evaluation and certification of payment terminals. This work has also been greatly assisted by the OSeC Group in working towards a Common European Payment scheme, and has been able to take account of both the technical security needs and the wider operational and risk management approaches used by payment schemes. CESG is pleased to see that a UK developed product HomePay HP 100 Series, has successfully completed its evaluation in a UK CLEF and is the first in its category under this approach."

Secure Electrans Managing Director Chris Jarman concluded; "This latest achievement, when considered in addition to the huge scope of commercial uses to which HomePay can be put, is extremely exciting, since it gives a clear and comparative indication of HomePay's technical capability and versatility."

In addition to the CAS POI accreditation, the HomePay system achieved Europay, MasterCard and Visa (EMV) level 1 and 2 certification in late 2011 and secured PCI PTS 3.1 Global Certification in October 2012. These are significant achievements that allow for interfacing with the same systems banks and merchants use in the authorisation of debit and third party merchant account.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) this week attacked Mozilla, the maker of Firefox, for being anti-business, hiding behind a veneer of populism and harboring "techno-libertarians and academic elites who believe in liberty and freedom ... as long as they get to decide the definitions of liberty and freedom."

In a long -- almost 4,000 words -- blog post, Randall Rothenberg, the CEO of the IAB US, took Mozilla to task over the open-source company's revamped third-party cookie blocking scheme, a point of contention between the online ad industry and the browser builder since the latter unveiled plans to block some of the cookies used by online advertisers to track users' Web movements, then deliver targeted ads.

While the most provocative of Rothenberg's criticisms were aimed at what he called Mozilla's values, his biggest beef with the Firefox-CCH plan seemed to be that Mozilla had set itself up as an unelected "gatekeeper" with the power to decide the fate of online businesses.

"The company's own statements and explanations indicate that Mozilla is making extreme value judgments with extraordinary impact on the digital supply chain, securing for itself a significant gatekeeper position in which it and its handpicked minions will be able to determine which voices gain distribution and which do not on the Internet," charged Rothenberg.

"The browser is certainly the gatekeeper and the gateway to the broad landscape of the Internet," agreed Ray Valdes, an analyst with Gartner, acknowledging the realities of the Web. "But most users are not aware of privacy, or simply don't care, whether it's in the browser or on Facebook. It certainly doesn't loom large in the minds of the average consumer [although] it is a hot-button issue for a small part of the user population."

Changing Standards for Online

Just a few months ago I wrote a blog post about healthcare data on the cloud (HIPPA Cloud Storage) and the security concerns surrounding this very sensitive and valuable data. I mentioned that as with many industries, more healthcare data is being moved to the cloud, but the healthcare industry has remained a few paces behind others in terms of securing online data.

The safety of personal healthcare information on the cloud continues to be an important topic, specifically in regards to government-issued guidelines. There are new requirements going into effect this year that expand on how HIPAA and HITECH standards regulate healthcare data on the cloud.

For years, HIPAA has required healthcare organizations to maintain confidentiality of electronic health information that can be linked back to an individual. More recently, HITECH provisions further strengthened HIPAA penalties and high risk merchant account .

This year's new provision to HIPAA, known as the Omnibus final rule, has its compliance date coming up in September 2013. There are important implications for vendors that are involved in any way with storing, transmitting or otherwise handling personal healthcare records. Anyone involved in those capacities is now known as a "Business Associate" and is therefore subject to the compliance regulations put forth in HIPAA. Those not compliant with HIPAA rules are subject to various penalties, including fines, as in the case of the recently announced Wellpoint fine.

As I have written about before, both "Covered Entities" (Healthcare providers, etc.) and Business Associates looking to leverage cloud services but keep sensitive patient information within their full control have been leveraging a new class of technologies known as Cloud Data Protection Gateways. These gateways intercept sensitive data while it is still on-premise, encrypts or replaces it with a random token and protects the data whether at rest, in transit or on the cloud. Encryption and Tokenization techniques deployed within these gateways are a viable solution to help organizations stay compliant.

As industry and government regulations surrounding HIPAA and the cloud continue to impact cloud users and providers, I will keep this blog up to date on changes and on solutions to stay on top of requirements.

Currently the IPSP space is dominated by a few major players like PayPal, Google Wallet and Amazon Payments, but emerging companies like SegPay are starting to garner more interest from clients that are looking for a higher level of customer service, more flexibility, an easily navigable dashboard, and customizable features.  Beyond that, SegPay ensures multiple levels of compliance and has strong relationships with banking institutions around the world, delivering a blend of security and ease of use.

"Customer service is the key differentiator for SegPay," said Cathy Beardsley, CEO of SegPay.  "When you need to talk with someone or get an immediate answer to a question, we are there.  SegPay aims to give its customers the benefits of a full service partner, while remaining a cost competitive alternative.  That's something you won't get anywhere else."

SegPay's transaction fees are on par with its larger competitors, but the company sets itself apart by providing additional value and ease of use to its customers."Webmasters and developers have enough to worry them without trying to navigate the regulations and technology surrounding online payments," Beardsley said.  "At SegPay, we take the stress out of the equation by providing reliable, full-service payment solutions that conform to a client's business."

With Beardsley at the helm, SegPay has developed extensive expertise in affiliate marketing, often being asked by banking institutions to speak about detecting and preventing affiliate fraud.  The company's work in fraud prevention is just one more way to ensure the fulfilment of the company mantra: "You get paid before we do."

"Leaf has done a great job focusing on the needs of SMBs and building an open and accommodating platform to meet their varying needs. We're very excited to partner with Leaf and leverage our mobile SDK to add value to their solution, merchant customers, and ultimately provide flexibility of payments to consumers," says DoubleBeam CEO Ted Tekippe.

DoubleBeam's e-Check app is one of the first publicly-announced apps for the Leaf Appstore, the first app store dedicated to the needs of brick and mortar businesses.  The recently announced Leaf Appstore enables third-party developers such as DoubleBeam to extend the core features built into the LeafPresenter POS tablet and LeafBusiness, the company's cloud-based management and analytics portal.

"Running a small business has become much more complicated than it should be, and many times that's because merchants are forced to work the way their technology works," said Aron Schwarzkopf, Leaf's founder and CEO. "By building our own POS tablet that includes the latest technology, and then opening the platform for creative developers to solve common challenges merchants face, we're making sure they can work the way they want to.  DoubleBeam's e-Check app is a great example of that."

In addition to its open platform for third-party developers, Leaf maintains an agnostic approach to payment acceptance, meaning that merchants using its platform can work with virtually any payment provider of their choice – from traditional credit card and gift card processors, to next generation payment methods and a number of digital wallets. With DoubleBeam's e-Check app, they can now use the LeafPresenter to accept checks just as easily.


Click on their website austpay.com.

Prepaid cards useful for crooks

As the popularity of prepaid money cards has risen, so have the number of reported scams associated with them.Green Dot MoneyPak cards can be a convenient way to pay bills and to add money to PayPal accounts. Your Better Business Bureau warns that the cards are now among the favorite tools used by scammers seeking access to your money. Fortunately, there are a few rules that card users can abide by to protect themselves from the unscrupulous.

In this variation on an old theme, a caller or emailer will notify you that you are the lucky winner of a fabulous prize in either a lottery or a sweepstakes. Only problem is, you first need to pay a fee in order to claim your money or merchandise. But, no problem, they say: you can use a MoneyPak card to quickly and conveniently pay the fee and then receive your winnings. All you have to do is go purchase the card for whatever amount they specify, then give them the 14-digit code found on the back of the third party merchant account.

One recently reported scam involved an online “quick loan” scheme in which the borrower was told to load more than $100 onto a prepaid debit card with the assurance that the loan company wouldn’t take the money off the card. Instead they claimed to only be looking for proof that the applicant could make payments on the loan in the future.

The loan company did end up taking her money and fraudulently claimed that the Better Business Bureau had put a hold on the funds, telling the person she would need to deposit yet more onto the card. The BBB, of course, doesn’t and couldn’t engage in such a practice. The loan applicant had fallen victim to a variation in the old advance-fee scam. The applicant’s money wasn’t recoverable.

It is bad enough when crooks use the name of the BBB in their schemes. But another popular prepaid debit card scam goes so far as to use the name of the FBI in order to steal from victims. In this scheme, malware is installed on a victim’s computer. The program locks up their computer and displays a message purporting to be from the FBI. The message is formatted with official-looking FBI logos and letterhead, and claims the computer owner must pay a fine or else be subjected to criminal charges for “violating federal copyright laws,” and accessing child pornography.

Helping mobile users navigate their way through this, Gemalto (Euronext NL0000400653 GTO), the world leader in digital security, has come up with an innovative mobile payment guide, 2013 Gemalto Netsize Guide, aimed at providing insight for users, mobile operators, banks, credit card companies and merchants.

"Mobile billing revenues worldwide are expected to rise by $13bn per year by 2017," said Mohamed Anis Chemli, Business Director, Telecommunication division at Gemalto Middle East.

"The popularity of the smartphone depicts the rise in mobile usage. This is why the guide explores the big picture of mobile security, identity, privacy, and social commerce, while focusing on mobile wallets, in-app micropayments and money transfer, operator billing and messaging, as well as Near Field Communication (NFC)."The popularity of the smartphone and the accessibility of data connections have established mobile devices as being invaluable for consumer purchases, personal banking, merchant transactions, and peer-to-peer payments.

Customers use mobile phones to enjoy services offered by businesses and data providers, thus giving mobile operators an additional opportunity to monetize their network services. According to Juniper Research, 11, 9 million mobile users in Middle East and Africa made transactions through mobile in 2012 and figures are expected to reach 71,9 million users by 2017.

Once you get past the hilarity of Senator Pana Merchant being selected to sit on an international board that advocates for greater global financial transparency even as her name is mentioned in media reports about an offshore tax haven, it appears the longtime Liberal has stoked a growing fire of public anger over the Senate.

Back when the former teacher/volunteer worker was appointed to the third party payment gateway house by Liberal prime minister Jean Chretien almost 11 years ago, there might have been some public tolerance for such matters. But what once might have been considered harmless political amusement very much seems to be something else today.

Consider the reaction to a Postmedia story that the senator from Regina was selected in May to be a director of the Parliamentary Network of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund - an organization that provides politicians from all over the world an opportunity to "advocate for increased accountability and transparency in international.

Riding high on demand, security services

The growing demand for security by large corporations and retail establishments across India is spurring investor attention in the security services industry, one of the country's fastest growing.As a number of companies that offer trained guards, cash storage and transportation as well as electronic surveillance raise risk capital and prepare to buy out smaller players, there is a wave of consolidation that is expected to change a hitherto fragmented industry, which is estimated to employ some 50 lakh.

"The security services industry is reaching an inflection point," said Rituraj Sinha, group chief operating officer of SIS. The 33-year-old, who was earlier a Londonbased banker, took over the reins of the company in 2002.

"Institutional investors believe that they can actually get handsome returns (in security services), instead of just getting back their capital which is the case so often in India," said Sinha, whose company raised Rs 500 crore earlier this year from private equity fund CX Partners. A combination of private equity investments and entry of foreign players is already providing a more organised avatar to this industry currently valued at Rs 23,000 crore.

Experts said the rising interest in the industry, which is broadly divided into segments ranging from manpower and guarding to cash logistics and electronic security, is based on expectations that its size will nearly double to Rs 40,000 crore by fiscal 2015. At present, the organised sector accounts for about 30% of the market. "We are definitely going to see a lot more consolidation," said Amitabh Jhingan, partner of third party merchant account services at EY. "This will be driven by two factors: the entry of global players and demand for companies with a national presence."

Delhi-based SIS has provided security for Tata group employees during the company's pull-out from the disputed site at Singur in West Bengal in 2008. SIS also provided manpower guarding services to automobile manufacturer Maruti at its plant in Manesar following rising tensions between the company's management and its workers.

"We would not have invested unless we anticipated internal returns on investment of about 25%," said Ajay Relan, managing partner of CX Partners, an investor in SIS. CX Partners' investment in SIS provided the company's previous investor DE Shaw with a lucrative exit.

In Mumbai, Topsgrup, one of the largest security services providers in India—it is promoted by 42-year-old Diwan Rahul Nanda—has mandated merchant bank NM Rothschild to scout for fresh investors. A deal will see current investors Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, ICICI Ventures and Everstone Capital, who together own about 38% of the company, exit the firm.

While manpower guarding dominates the space, cash logistics and electronic security are also fast-growing services. "In the cash logistics space, all operators carry up to Rs 15,000 crore per day, and up to Rs 5,000 crore in their vaults. Therefore, there is no doubt that we have reached scale," said R Venkatesh, chief strategy officer at CMS Info Systems, which runs a cash logistics arm, CMS Securitas. Private equity major Blackstone owns a majority stake in CMS.

Affluent clients seeking uncorrelated returns can now consider an investment that’s so alternative it was once a symbol of the counterculture: cannabis. After citizens of Colorado and Washington voted in 2012 to make legal the personal, non-medical use and possession of limited amounts of marijuana by adults, investor interest in this nascent industry spiked. “Since the election in November, we haven’t made an outbound investment call. Investors have been calling us,” says Michael Blue, chief financial officer of Seattle-based Privateer Holdings, reportedly the first private equity firm to invest in the legal cannabis sector.

Although federal law prohibits cultivating hemp and growing, selling, possessing or using marijuana, this seems to be having little effect on investor enthusiasm. And cannabis investors aren’t just aging hippies driving rusted Volkswagen buses plastered with peace signs. “We’ve been raising money from high-net-worth individuals, single-family offices and third party payment gateway,” says Blue, who has an MBA from Yale. “Our investors are from all over the country and all over the world. They’re from red states and blue states. We have ranchers in Kansas, physicians in California, Wall Street executives in New York and farmers in the Midwest.”

Both marijuana and hemp are varieties of the plant species Cannabis sativa, but the two are genetically different and further distinguished by their uses and chemical profiles. Marijuana is grown primarily as a recreational or medicinal drug. Hemp has been cultivated for thousands of years to produce a wide variety of industrial and consumer goods and is being touted today as a green alternative to many products.

Legal medicinal marijuana sales in the U.S. are projected to hit $1.5 billion this year, according to Medical Marijuana Business Daily, an industry publication that reports on legislative and financial developments. In 2014, the first marijuana retail stores are expected to open in Colorado and Washington, which could generate about $1 billion in revenue during the first full year the facilities are in operation. The combined national medical and recreational markets are expected to generate state-legal marijuana sales of $3 billion in 2014 and $6 billion by 2018.

The Hemp Industries Association says the current market for hemp products in the U.S. is about $500 million. Many hemp products are available for sale in the U.S., but beacuse of the federal prohibition on growing hemp, the seeds, oil and fibers used to make them are all imported. If hemp is legalized, the domestic market could ultimately be 10 times the size of the market for marijuana, but it’s expected to be slower to take off since hemp hasn’t been grown on a commercial scale in the U.S. for over 60 years.

In the short term, investors are focusing on the marijuana market because it’s larger right now and the infrastructure is in place in many states. Industry insiders are betting the market will continue to expand no matter what happens legislatively on the federal level. In 2016, the citizens of several states, including California, are expected to vote on whether to allow recreational marijuana use.

Rand gains as platinum strike ends

The rand gained for a second day as an illegal strike at a South African platinum company ended and the dollar weakened against major peers before Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke speaks tomorrow.Anglo American Platinum, the world’s biggest producer of the metal, said miners at two of its operations returned to work today.

Gold jumped to a two-week high as Bernanke prepares to speak amid speculation he will provide further guidance on plans to scale back asset purchases.“It looks like the strike news is starting to lose its effect,” Jim Bryson, head of foreign-exchange trading at Rand Merchant Bank, said by phone from Johannesburg.

“The rand is strengthening in line with everything else. With Bernanke speaking tomorrow, the market is in wait-and-see mode.”South Africa’s currency advanced 1 percent to 10.0631 per dollar as of 4:12 p.m. in Johannesburg.Yields on benchmark 10.5 percent bonds due December 2026 dropped 13 basis points, or 0.13 percentage point, to 7.99 percent.Bullion slid 23 percent last quarter as some investors lost faith in the metal as a store of value and Bernanke said the Fed may slow asset purchases this year if the economy continues to improve in line with its third party merchant account.

 "We were looking for a platform that could match our commitment to relationship banking and quality service and we found what we were looking for in DNA," said Scott Hamer, president and Chief Executive Officer, Community Bank - Wheaton/Glen Ellyn. "The platform's open architecture will enable us to easily integrate complementary solutions from Fiserv, third-parties and developers of DNAapps to create a unified banking platform built around the customer. We'll gain a comprehensive view of our relationships across channels and products for increased efficiency and deeper, more meaningful interactions."

Recognized by industry leading analysts for its best-in-class technology, user experience and breadth of functionality, DNA from Fiserv is the first open, relationship-centered core banking platform built for global collaboration. The platform employs a real-time, relational data model designed around the person, not the transaction, so that Community Bank - Wheaton/Glen Ellyn staff can securely view complete profiles of their retail and commercial customers by person, product or account. Integrated CRM and business intelligence tools help bank staff offer relevant products and services during the onboarding process and throughout each customer interaction.

With the platform's open architecture, Community Bank - Wheaton/Glen Ellyn can easily enhance DNA with solutions from Fiserv and third-party partners. The bank will also have access to the DNAcreator(TM) development toolkit, which allows bank IT professionals to create and sell custom core extensions called DNAapps to other financial institutions via the DNAappstore(TM). DNAappstore is the first online marketplace for core innovation and global collaboration, creating the potential for additional revenue for the bank through shared custom applications.

"With its selection of DNA, Community Bank - Wheaton/Glen Ellyn has demonstrated its commitment to fully understanding its customers' needs and providing quality products through state-of-the-art delivery channels," said Steve Cameron, president, Open Solutions Division, Fiserv. "The platform's open architecture, DNAappstore and full array of integrated solutions will help Community Bank - Wheaton/Glen Ellyn adapt to a changing market without sacrificing the efficiency and customer service benefits of a tightly integrated platform."

MDC betrayed the workers of Zimbabwe even at its birth in 1999. There were two contradictory forces during the launch of MDC. While  revolutionary workers wanted an independent party to fight the neo-liberal policies of the Mugabe regime, reactionary forces made up of conservative members of ZCTU,  middle class organisations, the church and NGOs were inclined towards an abstract fight for 'democracy' i.e. bourgeois/liberal democracy. The latter group prevailed hence the movement spearheaded by the working class fighting the IMF's neo-liberal structural adjustment programme was hijacked by a party ready to compromise with neo-liberalism by supporting privatisation.  So yes, Tsvangarai is ideologically a 'puppet of the West' (as Mugabe dismisses him) whose agricultural policy has been dictated by the white settler bourgeoisie or commercial farmers. He is seen as the better of the two evils as Zimbabweans are fed up with Mugabe's tyranny and third party payment gateway, not that he represents the interests of the working class in any shape or form.  When the only socialist MP elected on an MDC ticket Munyaradzi Gwisai put forward an alternative land programme he was attacked and threatened with expulsion from the organisation.  Because of its conservative outlook MDC attracted many white farmers to its side. Eddie Cross, a leading member of the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries became the MDC's economic advisor. His policy is to speed up privatisation (of services like water and health) and meekly and vigorously implement the IMF conditionalities that are responsible for the current economic crisis.

However, it must be noted that when workers formed MDC in Zimbabwe,  MMD in Zambia, the Australian Labour Party and the Labour Party in Britain they were intervening in politics.  The idea was to elect trade union delegates to parliament in order to legislate laws and measures that would protect workers - something that industrial action was unable to achieve. However, this did not in any way advance the course of the workers except to bring about reformism within capitalist society. Unfortunately this strategy was based on the false premise that the power of the bourgeoisie resides in parliament. On the contrary, the power of the bourgeoisie resides in capital outside parliament and in fact capital controls the state and parliament itself.

 As Vladimir Lenin correctly observed, for a revolution or for revolutionary 'regime change' to take place workers need revolutionary theory.  The workers' slogan should be; 'revolutionary regime change' because not every regime change will deliver on the demands of the working class. Left to their own devices trade unions as mass organisations are incapacitated from playing that role.  The history of all revolutions has taught us that left to their own devices the workers, however revolutionary, cannot transcend trade unionism or economism.  Or as Rosa Luxemburg put it, 'the objective conditions of capitalist society transform the economic functions of the trade unions into a sort of labour of Sisyphus, which is nevertheless, indispensable' . The historical limits of trade union politics therefore is that it inherently amounts to 'bourgeois politics of the working class' , its consciousness cannot transcend  the boundaries of bourgeois ideology and consistently develop revolutionary consciousness. Only revolutionaries can make a revolution. That is, only a politically party made up exclusively of professional revolutionaries can deliver on the demands of the working class.

Put differently, the major weakness of the trade unions, according to Lenin, is ideological. Hence Lenin's insistence that 'without a revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement', indeed, there can be no revolutionary 'regime change'. It is the historical duty of revolutionary intellectuals to inject that revolutionary theory to the workers from outside through deliberate propaganda and agitation. Agitation means that revolutionaries must champion the daily struggles of the workers for better wages and conditions of service while propaganda is about imparting revolutionary theory or working class ideology to the workers.

Trade unions were created by the working class during the period of the peaceful development of capitalism - they are essentially defensive organisations of the workers to increase the price of labour in the labour market, and for the improvement of labour conditions. Revolutionary Marxists endeavourer by their influence to unite them with the political party of the proletariat. Revolutionary parties must set up cells within trade unions to win them to their side. Winning influence in trade unions and setting up party cells for them is particularly important as workers are the most consistent fighters for justice and true democracy and yet they do not develop revolutionary consciousness spontaneously on own their own.

While revolutionary activists must work in existing trade unions they must always be preserved as broad organisations of union members affiliated to different political parties. It is not advisable to try and bring them under the direction of a single party.  Indeed, to try to make all trade unionists BNF members would be dangerous and ill advised as it might narrow the dimensions of the trade union movement and thus weaken the solidarity of the workers themselves. This is not the same thing as saying that unions should steer clear of politics. It is important that the trade union movement forges strategic and tactical alliances and partnerships with progressive political parties such as the BNF and non-governmental organisations which have a common vision and minimum platform.   However, it is wrong to identify the interests of the party with the interests of the trade unions or to try and 'make the party responsible for individual acts of individual trade unions'.